In The End All Will Fade Away
by Tempy
Summary: The day starts as normal, slightly slow day. But then, a blast from Sara's past comes in. Not a friendly blast. This causes Sara to end up in great danger and forces her to confide her past, her memories.
1. Chapter 1

Sara walked on one of the many corridors of the lab. She had just come in and was dripping from water, it was raining outside. The sound of her steps echoed in the silence. It was surprisingly quiet there. "_No cases_." Sara suspected as she walked to the dressing room to change to her working clothes.

Greg was leaning his face to his hands that were folded on the table. It was so quiet he could have well fallen asleep. He was just about to fall asleep when he heard steps on the corridor, very familiar steps, determined steps of Sara Sidle. He fixed his posture and immediately seemed energetic. He ran his fingers through his hair fixing the messy do. Water dripping Sara walked pass the lab room that Greg was sitting in without even giving a glance. Greg sighed and let his posture drop again. Once again cold treatment from Sara, without her even realizing it. It was raining outside which didn't help his mood. He went back to leaning on his folded hands. He took his new MP3-player and decided to relax by listening to some music.

Nick and Warrick walked to the lab room where Greg was apparently napping. "Now it would be so nice to throw a corpse right in front of his face." Warrick said to Nick and laughed. Nick smiled. "I think calling Sara here would have even more startling affect on him." Nick grinned widely. "Did someone mention me?" Sara said from the doorway. Nick turned smiling for the coincidence. "Never mind…We were just wondering if we should wake up Greg or call you to do it." He said to somewhat cold looking Sara. Sara stepped inside and walked to right behind Greg. She gently pulled off the headphones from his ears. She was quiet for a while. "FIRE!" She then yelled from the top of her lungs startling even Nick and Warrick. Greg jumped up from his chair faster than the lightning. "Nice for you to join us." Sara said smirking as Nick and Warrick let out a good laugh. Greg was blushing from embarrassment but tried to fix it by trying to look taller beside the guys. "_It's a guy thing_." Sara thought leaving the act without further attention.

Sara left the guys to tease Greg and went to another lab room that contained her office. The empty lab room made it possible for her to hear the rain drumming against the roof, against the window. She hadn't remembered there was a window in the room. She walked to it and opened the shades of the window. She saw the wet asphalt jungle of the Las Vegas. She noticed a white car parked in front of the building. There was someone sitting inside it, but from the rain Sara couldn't tell who it was. But deep in Sara's mind something felt familiar in this figure. Sara let this vague memory, which she completely ignored, step a side, as she went to go through some case files on her desk. She yawned. She could have killed for a cup of coffee now.


	2. Chapter 2

Catherine walked beside Grissom. They had just finished the investigation of a crime scene. The victim had clearly done suicide so the investigation was already over. "Oh c'mon you got to go out for a drink sometime!" Catherine commented about Grissom's spear time habits. "No, it's not my...style..." Grissom answered to her disbelief. Suddenly he stopped walking. Catherine sopped to see what he was looking at. "What?" She asked. "That car was there yesterday too, and the day before." Grissom answered looking at a white car that was parked right in front of the crime lab building.

"Maybe someone just left it there because it broke down or something." Catherine replied. "Would the driver be sitting in it always then?" Grissom replied. Now even Catherine noticed the driver. Grissom started to approach the car but when the driver noticed that he hit the gas. "Well he left in hurry." Catherine said frowning.

Sara leaned to her hand drumming her pencil against the table. The rain had finally stopped. Not that it would matter to her anyways. "Hey, Sara, this came for you." She heard from the door. Catherine was standing there holding a package. She came in and put it on the table. "Thanks." Sara said and started to open the package as she listened to Catherine tell about some car.

Catherine told Sara about the car and how it had left in a hurry when Grissom had approached it but Sara didn't seem to listen at all. _Just like a kid, I should first talk then give the package,_ Catherine thought as she watched Sara unwrap the package. "You know, I saw that car too, I once knew someone with that kinda car." Sara mumbled as she opened the cover of the box that had been in the wrappings.

Catherine saw Sara frown as she looked inside the small box. "What?" Catherine asked. That seemed to be her most used word today. She watched as Sara picked up a necklace from the box. It was silver and it had a small silvery bird in the end of the chain. "Whoa, you've got an admirer eh?" Catherine said grinning. But the look on Sara's face wasn't happy. She just stared at the necklace.


	3. Chapter 3

Sara laid the necklace back to the box dismissing Catherine's comment. "Im gonna go and get some coffee." Sara said with blank voice as she stood up to leave the office. "Mind if I join?" She heard from the door. Nick was leaning to the door side with a slight smile on his face. Sara smiled quickly as an answer. "Im gonna go and do some paper work, see ya." Catherine said leaving the office.

Greg drummed his hands against the lab table. No cases, no work, but still had to be there. This made Greg feel so bored that he might as well been sleeping. He would have done that but the morning incident with Sara was still haunting his mind too much. He didn't like it when the joke was on him. Though Sara didn't joke much, or if she did, Greg never actually knew when she was doing it, or perhaps he just didn't get it. Thinking about Sara made Greg frown; it was more puzzling than any of the cases he had been working on. He heard talking from the corridor. Greg raised his look, looking lurked like a puppy dog. He saw Sara and Nick passing the room he was in.

Something seemed off with Sara. Nick watched Sara who walked beside him with her determined, sharp steps that seemed almost angry. Knowing Sara he didn't even think asking _"what's wrong?"_ as an option. "I still think the office coffee is the crappiest in whole Nevada." Nick said instead, sticking to the coffee topic. "I really don't care about the difference; caffeine is caffeine, no matter what it tastes like. And there's caffeine in office coffee too." Sara said. "Hey, your coffee philosophy is your coffee philosophy. I just like to have my caffeine in a form that I can keep down." Nick said motioning his hands as surrendering sign. Sara gave a slight smile "Ok, ok, got the point, let's go to the nearest Starbucks." She said. "Can I come too?" They heard behind them. Greg rushed to to walk beside them. "Sure you are not too tired?" Nick said grinning widely, this made Sara chuckle slightly. Greg felt himself blushing. "Just teasing ya, sure you can come with." Nick smiled.

After a while the three C.S.I s sat at a table back in the lab drinking their fresh coffee. They had sunk to the slight awkward silence; Greg didn't know what to say to Sara without being treated as a joke. Nick on the other hand thought it was wiser to shut up. He satisfied to just keep an eye on Sara. Sara didn't even seem to notice the silence she just took small sips from the hot, black coffee.

"Whoa. Who died?" Warrick commented from the doorway as he looked at the silent group that surrounded the lab table. "No one." Sara mumbled without even turning to look at Warrick. "That is kinda part of the problem." Greg said looking at Warrick's amused face. The rest of the day went on slowly, with just paper work and coffee. Also, coffee stains on paper work. Sara and others were rather happy to get home, even though it was raining once again.

Sara quickly stopped by to her office for she had forgotten her cell phone there. She looked at the necklace box she had left on her desk. Sara hesitated; she didn't know what to do with it. She felt uncomfortable to even be close to the package. It was just a necklace, but still she was more nervous near it than any of the murder suspects she had had to deal with. Finally, after slapping herself in her mind for being so ridiculous, she picked the small box up and shoved it to her jacket pocket.

Finally she walked on the silent lab corridors towards the exit. She was glad she didn't run into anyone at that moment, she was feeling too grumpy to deal with people, or even to pretend she could deal with people. She pushed the glass door open and the fresh air hit her face making her take a deep breath. Rain drops run down her face and jacket. Normally the fresh air would have made her feel slightly high spirited, rain or no rain. But now, all she could feel was the small necklace box weighing in her pocket, like it would have been trying to pull Sara all the way to the gates of hell.


	4. Chapter 4

Sara sat at her kitchen table. Old newspapers were scattered on it. Old paper cups that once had entailed fresh, black coffee were lying amongst the papers. She leaned her head to her hands. She stared at the small box she had placed on the table right in front of her. She stared at it so long that it started to feel unreal, like the box wouldn't really exist, and the necklace would be as unreal as the box.

Sara didn't have any idea how long she had been staring at this one little box. She heard the clock ticking endlessly. She leaned back sighing. _This is ridiculous_. She looked at the clock, three hours had passed. She moved her look to the box again, now with irritation bubbling inside her. Why it was so hard for her to just dismiss the whole thing? She grabbed the box and rolled it in her hands. Finally she opened it and now faced the silvery necklace.

The necklace made Sara go back in time. She remembered stuff she didn't want to remember, the time that seemed to be such a long time ago. She remembered how she was young. She was sitting on a hood of a car with a can of beer in her hand. She laughed at couple of guys, same age as she, who were goofing around. Sara closed the box she held on her hands. Minute after minute the bottle of wine, she had gotten as a Christmas present a year ago, seemed more and more tempting. She wanted to forget. She had spent years to forget certain things about her past, now one small box ruined all the years of work. Now she would have needed something much stronger than wine to forget. Sara closed her eyes, gently placing the box on the table, like it would have been made out of glass.

The next day started off slowly. It was rare that there was no hurry in two days, in a row. The sun was just rising when Sara parked her car in front of the crime lab building. She stepped out from her car and stopped to watch as the sun coloured the sky with shades of gold. She looked around in silence, she saw the white car parked in front of the lab building again. There it was just standing, just like it had been doing so many days earlier.

Sara walked towards the car, she didn't hesitate. She felt numb, not nervous, she didn't even realize what she was doing at first. But when she was already close to the car she felt the anxiety hit her stomach like a hammer. She stopped. She looked at the car, the small rusty spots decorated its sides. Sara saw half of the driver's face from the side mirror. She didn't have to see it whole to know who it was. The driver rolled down the window and threw out a cigarette only an inch away from Sara's feet. Sara looked at the smoking stump of the cigarette, she stomped on it making it go out.

Catherine looked out from her office window. She saw the white car parked in front of the building again. This made her frown; it gave her an unsettling feeling. Maybe it was slightly paranoid but she sensed danger and was immediately feeling the fear of losing her or her child's life. God knows how many times she had been in danger and God knows how many enemies she had made over the years. She watched as the widow of the car was rolled down. The driver threw out a cigarette. Now Catherine noticed Sara standing close to the car. Catherine's frown got deeper, she leaned closer to the window to see what was going on. She saw Sara put out the cigarette by stomping on it. Something in this gesture disturbed Catherine.


	5. Chapter 5

Sara stared at the dirty side mirror of the car. She stared at the jaw line of someone she knew. Someone she remembered from her past. She took a deep breath and was about to walk to the car but then she heard a car pull over at the parking lot. She turned and saw Nick stepping out of his car. And when she turned to look at the familiar white car again it was already driving away.

Catherine saw Sara just standing there staring till Nick showed up. The white car left. Catherine folded her hands on her chest. _Why it didn't leave already when Sara came close? It only left when Nick showed up. _For a moment Catherine cursed Nick's timing. She wished she could have at least seen the licence plate from where she was standing, but she couldn't. Something was wrong with this. Something was _really_ wrong, Catherine knew this and it made her stomach twitch uncomfortably. Suddenly Grissom appeared next to her. "What's wrong?" Catherine gave a glance at him and motioned at the window. "The white car was here again." Grissom sighed. "We have something else to ponder about now. We have a new case." He said.

Sara, Nick, Warrick, Greg and Catherine were sitting at the table of the meeting room as Grissom told about the case. "A woman was found at the desert early this morning by two hikers. Cause of death was strangling. Before it she had been abused, her jaw was completely smashed and the left side of her face had lot of fractures." Grissom placed few photographs on the table for others to look at. "The victim had no personal belongings but she was holding something in her fist. It was this." Grissom tossed a small evidence bag on the table. There was a silvery necklace inside it. The same kind that Sara had gotten the day before. Catherine raised her look from the necklace and looked at Sara. Sara just stared at the bag.

Nick looked at Sara who had suddenly just frozen. "Um, Sara, didn't you get a necklace just like that yesterday?" He heard Catherine say with her wary tone. "Yeah, I did." Sara answered. She picked up the bag. "Only difference is ..."Sara pointed at the silvery bird in the chain. "My bird still has its head." Catherine and others reached to see the necklace closer. "Who gave it to you?" Grissom asked frowning. "I don't know there were no markings on who sent it." Sara answered shrugging. "You have no idea who it could be?" Catherine asked tilting her head. That gesture was something she always did when she wasn't convinced. Sara shook her head. "Mind bringing it here?" Grissom asked looking at Sara. She stared at the bag. "I'll go get it." Sara said rising from her chair.

On her way home Sara thought about the photos she had seen of the victims. Half of the woman's face had been almost completely smashed. Why Ben, why on earth? Sara felt pain within her, she felt sick over what he had done. She remembered a guy from the time she had been young. Robert Benson. Everyone had called him Robbie, but Sara had called him Ben. She remembered his wide grin framed with dimples and his shabby hair shadowing his green eyes. He had been one of the few people Sara had called a friend. Now knowing what he had gotten himself into Sara felt sick.

Grissom sat on his chair at the table. "I don't believe her." Catherine said with fast, determined voice. "Really? Based on what?" Grissom asked fixing his glasses that had slipped down on his nose. Nick folded his hands on his chest looking at Catherine with explanation waiting expression on his face. Warrick raised his eyebrows waiting to hear the reason too. "I just know it, she knows who sent her the necklace." Nick rolled his eyes letting his hands fall on his sides. "Look, we know you don't like her that much, but it isn't a reason to connect her with a murder." Greg said leaning back on his chair. Catherine let out a sigh. "That's not why I think she's lying. I was there when she saw the necklace the first time. She looked unhappy about it. So maybe she knew who sent it." Se said shrugging and motioning with her hands. Grissom frowned thinking over the case. He concentrated and the voices of Greg, Nick, Warrick and Catherine arguing seemed to fade in the background of his thoughts.


End file.
